To Heaven and Back Is An Old Story

A child's experience during surgery taps the ancient tradition of visions of paradise.

By

Mollie Ziegler Hemingway

April 24, 2014 7:18 p.m. ET

In "Heaven Is for Real," 3-year-old Colton Burpo recovers from serious appendix surgery to tell an astonishing story: During the operation he left his body and visited heaven. Initially skeptical, his parents come to believe him as he vividly describes relatives who had died decades prior and events that happened before he was born.

Colton's father Todd Burpo, the pastor of Crossroads Wesleyan Church in Imperial, Neb., recorded his son's experience and the resulting book became a surprise best seller three years...